An estimated 100,000 people crowded Downtown on Oct. 12, 1955, to see a 20-foot-tall bronze
statue of Christopher Columbus unveiled in front of City Hall.

The 7,000-pound statue was too tall to be fully covered by a tarp for the unveiling on Columbus
Day, so its massive feet stuck out at the bottom.

An hourlong parade preceded the dedication, which capped nearly two weeks of celebrations that
included concerts and boat races on the Scioto River.

Standing quietly in the background as politicians made speeches was Salvatore “Sal” Spalla, the
lawyer and civic leader who had made the statue possible.

“It was Columbus Day, Oct. 12, 1950,” he told
The Dispatch decades later. “I attended a wreath-laying ceremony at a small Downtown
statue of Christopher Columbus. It was a very small statue, about a fourth of the size of the
current one.

“Columbus was always my hero. I thought certainly the largest city in the world named for
Columbus ought to have more than that.”

Spalla started a letter-writing campaign to drum up support for this plan. One sent to the mayor
of Genoa, Italy, paid off.

“I told him, ‘Mr. Mayor, wouldn’t it be wonderful if the birthplace of this great Genoese
admiral could do something about this?’ ”

Genoa Mayor Vittorio Pertusio told him to build a base. The statue was on its way.

The base had been built as part of City Hall in the 1920s. The city had planned to place a
statue there but had never been able to afford one. In 1992, when the city marked the 500th
anniversary of Columbus’ epic voyage, Spalla was invited to address the Columbus Day celebration. “
It gladdens my heart to stand here in the presence of Christopher Columbus,” he told a crowd. “It
uplifts my spirit every time.”Spalla died in 2002 at the age of 87.

Suggestions for Mileposts that will run this bicentennial year can be sent to Gerald Tebben,
Box 82125, Columbus, OH 43202, or email
gtebben@columbus.rr.com.